Newbee from Europe

[Eurotruck1977]

Good morning & my advance apologies for occasional grammatical imprecisions which may occur when a non-native is in a hurry....

Well, how did I get here? A pure coincident. My wife and I were looking for a 2000`s truck, preferably a GM product, Smallblock, Extended Cab, 4 WD for towing our horses, getting to the rented barn from our house and, well, having a bit of fun among the dwarf cars here in Germany.

We were looking around and during the search it turned out that a truck will be extremely expensive as far as insurance is concerned. Next to my Mercedes C-Class and my wife`s Chevy Cruze Diesel, it would be our third car and this will be responded by the insurance by a premium. Additionally truck insurance suffers from a distinct plague which is the delivery Drivers (mostly foreigners) in their rusty Sprinter-Vans. They drove the insurance rates up in the last 20 years.

Well, there was only one way out: A historic truck, fulfilling the strict rules of our DOT. More than 30 years old, in predominantly original condition. This allows a v e r y cheap insurance (less than 200 bucks a year) and low taxes. So we started to look and since I spend my boyhood around US bases in our area, the Chevy C/K series was a common sight for me and came to my mind immediately. Less than 60 miles from our house we found one. And bought it. 1977 C15 Sierra Classic Fenderside Regular Cab 350 ci with A/C. A European specialty: The previous owner added a 25 gallon LPG Tank with an Impco Venturi device. LPG is just about 2 bucks a gallon here. Gas, in comparison, is abount 6 bucks a gallon. I do not know how the guy convinced our authorities to accept this for the historic plate. But they did. That finally counts and makes it a great daily Driver. Performance loss is minimal, fuel consumption a bit higher. But who complains?

I already renovated parts of the electrical System (new alternator, new battery cables, new battery, new v-belts) and when the salty winter gets here, this almost rust-free California car will find a home in my Garage where I will start with some headwork and replace the standard exhaust with something beefier.

I am really looking Forward to get in touch with other owners of this (at least here in Europe) extremely rare truck!

My regards from Germany!!